11/8/09

I recently purchased an audiobook from iTunes called "The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class" by Keith Cameron Scott. After one listen to this addictive book, I've found myself returning it to it several more times. It teaches some valuable concepts not only for making money online, but for success and finding financial freedom. I highly recommend it as a way to engage in your own introspection when it comes to your personal journey to wealth. You'll find the material easy to follow and some of the stories he gives quite enlightening if not very entertaining.

Scott provides his 10 distinctions as mini-lessons which illustrate what makes the rich wealthy, while the middle class struggles. The middle class seems to get a bad rep, but they often have financial dreams which they allow to dwindle because they go for comfort instead of freedom. Meanwhile the wealthy are busy working on ways to create more sources of income so they can enjoy that freedom that eludes many.

Overall, I found the 10 distinctions book to be well presented, and it won't overwhelm you. It's inspirational, and if listened to enough you can begin to adopt the mindsets needed for financial success. You'll be training yourself to think more like a successful millionaire, while discarding small-minded thinking. This is not to say "poor and middle class people are stupid", but that millionaires tend to have a different though process when it comes to money and how it's made.

Some of the things you'll learn about in Scott's book include the concepts of being generous, focusing on multiple sources of income (especially passive), working for profits vs wages, and focusing on the long term rather than the short term. If you read or listen to this work, you'll find yourself realizing just how many times you might have engaged in middle class thinking, which can be quite small minded at times. One of the best examples is when he points out that poor people talk about other people, middle class talks about things, and the rich talk about ideas. How many times have you found yourself gossiping about others? You've engaged in a poor-financial mindset at least a few times. He goes on to point out that the rich are the ones who have developed the ideas, which ultimately are the "things" middle class enjoy or talk about. These include vacation resorts, sports teams and movies, many of which are funded by and created from a rich person.

If you've read Robert Kiyosaki's "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", you'll notice some familiar concepts in this book, such as the idea of owning your own company to become rich. If you're like me and engage in online moneymaking as your main profession, you're already partly on your way. You're focused more on creating profits, multiple sources of revenue and passive income. For me the next steps involve finding more passive income streams to start building my net worth. I currently receive at least 4 or 5 different payments a month based on my online work. To me that's a good start, but I know much more can be done. Also, I realize I may need to branch out into some real world income streams including the always popular, yet speculative real estate sector. I dabble in stocks, but after listening to this audiobook it makes me want to increase my knowledge in that area as well. The book's worth its price just in terms of its motivational and inspirational factors.

One of the greatest ideas Keith Cameron Scott gives in his book is the concept of rich people continuously read and invest in their personal finance/success libraries. He notes that the middle class believes learning ends with school, while millionaires are always learning more. This concept alone is priceless and actually gives you an excuse to buy Scott's book, "The 10 Distinctions" as it will provide a great basis for your successful path towards financial freedom.